Spandex is Casual
by IAmForReal
Summary: Rangers have lives, right? A story where YOU can come up with ideas.
1. Chapter 1

_So, I got inspiration from a great fanfic to do a full-on drabble series, where you guys are going to be the idea-creator people!_

_If you want, you can leave ideas as a review or PM me an idea. In the situation where I could get a lot of ideas, I may not be able to do all of them. But I will try. This is also going to be a whole-Megaforce cast drabble, so please give ideas that aren't always revolving around a couple or a mainstream character._

_The prompts and ideas are free to your extent. But there are some guidelines I'd like you to take into account:_

**I'm writing drabbles, so please send me prompts for small moments, or small moments composed in one chapter.**

**They must include at least 1 character from Power Rangers Megaforce.**

**They can be AU or completely unrelated to what's going on in the series right now.**

_Because I'm inconsistent, I may or may not add more guidelines within chapters, but these are the main three right now. Please tell me if I'm being too pushy :/._

_I hope you guys find this a fun idea and take part! I'd really appreciate it if you do._

And your creative flow enters...NOOOWWW!


	2. The Comfort Society

******Summary:** The comfort society shares a moment on the roof of Harwood County High.  
******Warning:** Minor cursing, mention of suicide  
**Genre: **Angst, Hurt/Comfort  
**Characters**: Troy, Jake, Emma, Noah, Gia

* * *

As Troy sits down on the roof, the comfort society lets the wind play with their hair and fill in and blow away gaps all at once. The five of them are sitting down criss-crossed, their backpacks pushed back away and almost falling off the building. It's all far behind them, and for a moment they felt like first-graders again when everything used to be easy.

And it's quiet. There's an unspeakable tension floating in the oxygen around them and everyone is staring at the ground or their hands and they almost refuse to breath because rifts suck.

"My mom died when I was, like, ten."

All pairs of relieved eyes turn to Jake, who has his natural perkiness fading away and a gruff voice humbly floating with the tension.

"I was this twelve year old kicking the soccer ball in the backyard when I knew my dad was really sad. Mom wasn't coming home anymore, that's all I knew. And I could see dad holding her necklace and sitting. He wasn't crying. He was staring at the pictures on the wall." His voice cracks a bit, and everyone sees how sad Jake Holling can get and it makes them sad. "I wish I went in there and gave him a hug that day. But I was scared. Oh, I was _freaking_ scared, that I would make my dad more upset. Because you know me, almost everything I touch becomes a screw up."

The four rangers are lamenting with him, because they're a team and that's what they're supposed to do.

"But I was fourteen and I went and hugged him. He didn't push me to the ground. He grabbed me and we cried together. I hate crying. But I loved that day. He's been with me ever since, helping me play soccer, putting money into my future tuition and stuff when he should really be doing more stuff for himself."

Jake is silent for forty three seconds, and in that he lets five tears cascade down his scruff cheek and takes out a chain with a ring and a dog tag jingling quietly in the loud silence.

He holds up the dog tag. "This is for my dad, who I couldn't heal the way I should've."

He holds up a silver band. "This is for my mom, who healed both of us."

There are five weights hanging above them. One has disappeared.

"I hate when people call me perfect."

Three rangers and a tear stained Jake turn to a waterfall of blonde hair and Gia shouts a weak smile.

"Like that's all I hear. Perfect can have more than one definition, or at least I think. But, 'Gia you're so perfect', hearing that over and over again makes me think I'm only one layer. Like I'm one dimensional." She makes a gesture with her hands, creating a small vertical space in front of her. "That's all I am." Gia stares at the cement in front of her silently. Two weights are gone, and Noah fixes his collar.

"I made robots as a kid because I was lonely." he said, fumbling with his fingers. "No one wanted to hang out with the loser kid that tried too hard in school and liked believing in legends." In the midst of his rant, he smiles a bit smugly. "I can't say I don't. I _am_ a legend now." Everyone scoffs with a smile as he goes on. "But I made robots so they could be my friends. No one hung out with me anymore."

He stares right at Emma for a second. "I made a girl robot once. I named her Emma, because Em I missed you." Emma purses her lips and stares at his glasses. "That was my first malfunction, you know? It blew up twenty minutes later. I started crying. Because you blew up, Emma. You blew up in my face and you were gone…and you could be repaired, but it wouldn't be the same."

Emma mouths "I miss you too," and grabs his hand and hers before she begins.

"I hate when Gia goes off with her other friends." she blurts and Gia's head perks up in her direction. "I hate hearing 'see you later' from you, because it became reserved for when you left me to go hang out with those friends." Gia frowns at her. "Cause it's like we don't even hang out that often. But you hang out with them and you leave me alone in the hall, and I don't have friends to go run of to like you do, Gia. You tell me I'm your best friend, but I don't feel like the best. I feel ordinary." She pauses to collect her thoughts. "I'm never special." she says in a small hoarse whisper.

And Gia doesn't have to physically act to put her hand in Emma's.

"It sucks, doesn't it?"

Everyone's head peers towards the final weight in the space, where Troy is smiling this empty and really hollow grin and everyone senses how he's done with everything.

"You wake up every day, hoping that someone will walk up to you later and tell you how nice you are or ask if you want to hang out or just freaking smell the roses with them. But it's fifty-fifty. You have to face reality. I mean, we're Power Rangers but we're human. Shit happens." The four cringe when they hear him curse. "I would come home every day with every bruise bluer and blacker, but they never hurt. It hurt knowing that my whole world thought that I was a freaking mess and that I'd never make it. I believed them. I believed every word." His laugh is extremely hollow. "It sucked for my mom, though. She could barely hold up a roof and get food and here was her son, Troy Burrows the ultimate screw-up, causing more problems than a parent can handle. I thought one day, if people don't want me here and I'm just causing problems for my mom…shouldn't I just go away?"

Everyone runs a hand through their hair or dabs at their eyes, amazed at how everything's been going, and why they didn't find each other sooner.

"I was fourteen. I'd been crying the whole day, carrying a rope in the bottom of my backpack. When I got home, my mom wasn't, and it was perfect. I tied that rope on my favorite branch of the tree in front of our house. The loop at the bottom was pretty small." Emma sniffs. "I didn't do it just yet. I climbed the tree and had a death grip on the top of the rope and I started crying. Like a baby, and for once I didn't care who saw me. They could throw crap for all I know. I didn't care." He spoke in a quiet voice. "It was my last day."

Emma's head leans on his shoulder. "My mom came home, and left her car in the middle of the street when she saw the rope. I just shouted 'To hell with everything!' I was done. But I didn't. Like I was that close, and I didn't."

He suddenly reaches behind him and grabs his backpack. Everyone watches as he digs to the bottom, and pulls out a rope. Everyone says nothing, but Emma's sobbing and staring straight at the rope.

"This is a symbol of where I came from. My mom and I visit that tree every year."

And Troy is crying when Jake, whose tears are fresh because Troy's his twin, rips the rope from his hands and runs to the edge. Troy leaps up after the rope, but Jake's already launched it off and it's falling deep below them.

Troy doesn't think, and grabs the front of his sweater. "Why the hell would you do that?" he yells with tears.

"It's done!" Jake says. He points a shaky finger down into the abyss that ate Troy's past. "It's down there, Troy. So leave it."

Troy wipes at his eyes, and the three that were left are coming towards them with salty eyes. Jake doesn't flinch, but his finger is still pointing down.

"It's down there." Jake repeats. He shoves Troy so the red ranger is facing the sky and clouds and horizon before him. "You're up here. _We're_ up here. The whole world's up here! Don't go down."

Emma takes her place next to him, where Noah has taken off his glasses so they won't get wet and is holding her hand, and Gia next to Jake.

The five of them stare at the sun, a brilliant painting of a pale yellow light that burns them every which way. The sky is painted with the slow revolution of white patches and everything is silent again.

Troy realizes how a dragon, a snake, a phoenix, a tiger, and a shark have created a collision and it's the most beautiful thing he's experienced.


	3. Vacuum

**Summary: **Prompt from casey and lily fan: Troy finds out Gia likes him more than Jake.  
**Warning: **Only that it's more Troy/Gia forward.  
**Genre: **Romance/Tiny bit of Angst  
**Characters: **Troy/Gia, _Jake_

_Note: Thank you _casey and lily fan _for being the first to give an idea!_

* * *

"I like you."

Troy blinks and it triggers a thousand and one thoughts in his head. _He's never had a girlfriend, every girl made fun of him, everyone shoved him to the side…_

But if Gia Moran, the most popular girl at Harwood County High, could find something special about him, then he is officially impressed, and surprised and shocked and everything in between.

He looked into her eyes, a light shade of green that spoke deep and was covered with her waves of golden hair. Fumbling her fingers, Gia was actually scared of something and his yellow ranger was more like everyone else than everyone else perceived. Nervous, apprehensive…

_Serious…_

"And not Jake?" he finally says breaking the vacuum that had left them in an unbalance.

Gia ponders for a second before replying. "I love Jake." she says and Troy nods slowly. "But I also love Noah. And I really love Emma." She takes a step towards Troy, no more. "I feel something different for you. A different type of love."

And Troy feels it too. He doesn't know if it's what she is, but it's bringing him closer to her and burning through his blood and surging in his chest, and it's different. He likes it. But it washes itself with uncertainty and the fact that he doesn't know.

"Say something, please." Gia whispers. Troy sucks in a breath, like a vacuum.

"Okay."

Gia blinks this time. "Okay?"

"Okay." Troy confirms.

"What does okay mean?" The words roll off her tongue slowly.

"It means that this is all okay. But it also means that I don't know, that there are some things worth thinking about, and that you and I are special." He flashes Gia a smile, and hearing his words she shines an identical grin.

"So you'll consider it?" Gia asks.

"Of course I will."

And he places a tender kiss on her cheek before exiting the room of swirling thoughts.


	4. Twinkling Against Her Trophy

**Summary:** Prompt from Rocy: Emma wants to enter a BMX tournament, but others consider it dangerous. She secretly enters the tournament and meets someone who falls for her and Troy is jealous of him.  
**Warning/Spoiler: **More Emma centric which opens up her BMX life.  
**Genre: **Romance/Angst  
**Characters: **Emma, Emma/Troy, Emma/OC, _a bit of Noah_

_Note: Another longer drabble!_

* * *

"No."

Emma's excited grin swiftly transforms into a thin line of surprise and her poster falls from her face. She stares at Gia and Noah, whose lips are pursed too thick and their eyes are platinum while Jake and Troy's are melting bronze, staring back and forth between the blue and yellow and the pink.

"What do you mean 'No'?" she says, her impersonation of them low and gruff and defensive.

Noah tears her flyer away from her in a quick action and reads, "BMX tournament. Amateur riders only. Come and get in the dirt!" He turns the flyer to face her, and she reads and rereads it over and over again before Noah speaks again. "You aren't getting anywhere near that dirt."

"I can get in the dirt if I want to. If you hadn't noticed, I'm nearly a dirt worshiper." Emma huffs.

"Okay," Gia says. "BMX. Riding bikes really fast. Emma Goodall takes a humpty-dumpty fall and they can't put her back together again."

"Wait, this is about me getting hurt?"

"Racing like that in your _first_ race is going to give you fractures everywhere." Noah informs her, his arms crossed on the lunch table nonchalantly and Emma almost wants to smack him.

"I can take a hit."

"And you're not gonna." Gia declares. "No tournament."

"Well, I can see your faith in me deteriorating."

Her best friend's eyes turn as hard as steel, and Emma almost sighs because she shouldn't be challenging and Gia's always supposed to be right…

Instead she looks at everyone with this sad outpouring and humbly walks away.

~X~

It's this big warehouse that crumbles at its corners when she decides to fill the room with guilt and dread and it all sucks. But she promised she'd prove herself, and Emma Goodall never breaks a promise.

It's the moment where she realizes that everyone brought a helmet and she brought a purse that she's in the front of the line and almost falling over the sign up table.

"Name…" the man at the table says, reeling back a bit at seeing a girl in pink signing up for BMX.

"Em-Emma Goodall." Once her name is fully printed on the paper, she takes no time to scuttle away.

Even if her name could easily be erased off of that sheet, she knew she couldn't go back.

~X~

"You know, if I see a girl in pink around here, I think my girlfriend is bringing me lunch or something."

Emma rolls her eyes as she fumbles with her gloves because she knows that voice and didn't expect one bit to have him at a public BMX practice. And he happens to be freaking irritating and arrogant and Emma's close to throwing her helmet at him.

She has a death grip on her bike when he appears next to her, his blonde hair glaring in her face.

"Expectations are hopes we want to come true. What about the fifty percent chance it won't?" she says as she wipes chunks of dirt off her bike.

He laughs almost in disbelief at the way she responds before actually talking to her. "You go to Harwood. I've seen you around fighting for your wildlife. It's cute."

"It's real." she snaps.

But he's unfazed. "You know who I am, right?" His tone is rivaling her snaps. "Nate McCann, star quarterback, king of senior year."

Emma doesn't look up. "Yeah, I've seen you around. Your face is everywhere, unfortunately."

Nate shakes off this comment and says, "So what's a pretty girl like you doing in BMX?"

"Having fun." Emma replied.

"Huh." he says sounding like he found something in common. "Me too."

And Emma finally looks up at him, a small tug at her lips at the fact that those three words made him seem like her and not like his friends. She liked that better.

~X~

It's Noah that notices the pink ranger walking into the hall with the most popular guy of Harwood County High. He does everything, from tilting his head to wiping his eyes and try and see if it was real.

He points forward. "Is Emma walking with Nate McCann?"

Gia, who was shaking her head at Jake, hears Nate's name and flicks her head towards Noah's gaze. Her eyebrows arch in surprise, her face solid. Jake and Troy turn too, Jake cocking his head in confusion and Troy just straightening himself up against the lockers.

"Who's that?" Troy abruptly asks.

Jake hits his chest. "Come on, man. You've been here long enough. Nate McCann is like a god walking in these halls."

Troy purses his lips and furrows his brows at a stirring inside of him that crosses his arms. He scoffs and mutters that Nate McCann does _not_ look like a god.

~X~

One day, Emma doesn't sit with them at lunch. She sits with Nate and three tables down from her, the boys are staring at amazement.

"Is that our Emma?" Jake asks with this amused grin.

"She's wearing Emma's shorts." Noah says as he folds his napkin. But he's frowning because now without Gia, the table has a gap and he wants Emma to come over here.

Troy watches Emma intently, her laugh, the way her lips curl upward. He knows she's actually happy and not playing it off and he almost doesn't want to pull her over here because she looks like she's having the time of her life. But he's selfish. He believes that she belongs here.

There's this gnawing at his stomach that tells him that it could be him, and he wants it to be him. Not being the popular guy, but being the guy that gets to sit next to Emma and make her laugh and smile and feel giddy inside.

~X~

Emma's at practice cleaning her bike again when she notices Nate staring at the side of her head, his gaze taking her hair and softly tucking it behind her hair.

She smiles at him. They had maybe sort of become kind-of friends and Emma doesn't want to be naïve in their first week.

"What?" she asks.

"You're really beautiful, you know that?" he says humbly.

Emma's face boils to a tomato color, and she stares down at her pink bike and gives him her most honest answer. "No I don't know." But she's smiling and gushing and she can see him smiling too.

The next day, she hears that Nate McCann broke up with Chloe Rodgers, and he finds her alone outside the school. He holds her hand and tells her again.

~X~

The thought that Nate McCann and his Emma Goodall were dating made Troy deflate like a hot air balloon. Troy was in denial, but Gia, Jake, and Noah all knew it. Troy liked Emma.

And they were right, Troy knew. There was something about her that made him light up or smile or bring out sunshine on a stormy day. That same thing had reeled in Nate McCann, and Troy felt like a coward not jumping at it first.

But Troy didn't jump. He walked. If Nate made Emma smile every day, then so be it.

~X~

It's two weeks later and one day after Emma had revealed that she was participating in the tournament. After facing Gia and Noah's wrath, they all come to see Emma race around in the dirt field. As the races begin, they watch the petite figurine in pink pedal her way to an "I told you so."

Oh, and victory too, for Emma wins a bright silver trophy later that afternoon.

They catch her after the tournament and Emma and her trophy run straight into Gia's arms. Troy gets hugged last, but Emma's grinning this radiant shape off her lips and her small frame is entangled in his arms. Oh, how he's missed this.

He's still holding her when they break apart. "You should go see Nate," he tells her.

Her brown eyes are twinkling against her trophy. "I broke up with him yesterday."

Troy is uplifted inside, but gives his friend a smile of sympathy as she goes on. "I didn't really want a relationship now."

"That's my girl," Noah comments and ruffles her hair. Emma is hitting his blazer at poking Gia at how they didn't believe in her and all that. She smiles the whole way home.


	5. The Curves of His Goals

**Summary: **His future best friend's robot beats him at soccer.  
**Warning/Spoiler: **Jake and Noah first meet.  
**Genre**: Friendship  
**Characters:** Jake/Noah

* * *

Eight year old Jake Holling groans in frustration and wastes energy jogging past the goal to retrieve the black and white ball that refuses to go into the net. Just once does he place it right in front of the goal and kick it.

It hits the pole.

He promptly falls and he sets the ball down and falls back peacefully on the green field. The sun is beating him up over and sideways, and he thinks he's losing it when he hears a bunch of beeps and buttons rolling above him.

"Wow, looks like you need a lot of practice."

The tone is his age and sarcastic with a pinch of snarky, and Jake acts on impulses and jumps up. He spins around ready to talk back, and realizes that he's facing the small nerdy kid in a blue collar and thick framed glasses. He knows him from class. He doesn't sit with many friends.

"I _am_ practicing." Jake huffs. Then he notices that there is a metal composure across from him that's his size and shaped to stand on its own and he doesn't know if he should be impressed or bewildered. "It looks like you could use some actual friends."

"I know. That's why I built Fred." He gestures to the robot and Jake makes note of the controller in his hand.

"Fred's a stupid name." he retorts.

"Fred's _his_ name!" the other boy screeches. But he lays off enough to smirk and say, "And Fred would be glad to coach you."

Jake scoffs as the robot moves its arm up and down. "I don't need a coach. I'm gonna be the best soccer player ever." He thumps his chest proudly and positions the ball in front of the net again. He takes a shot, and the ball comes back at his feet. The boy subsequently controls the robot to move behind it.

"Fred can make a goal." he says, pushing up the brim of his glasses. He hunches his shoulders and Jake senses that the remote is getting more attention than him. _He doesn't even have legs,_ Jake comments.

But Jake's a semi-jinx, and suddenly a little circular platform shoots out with a surprisingly tremendous force and slams the ball away. His jaw drops when the ball successfully makes it into the net.

He looks over at the boy with the controls, and he's smiling smugly with his arms across his chest and Jake finally notices that he has curly hair like him. But he shoves the boy's shoulder, and quietly mutters that he can make a goal better than that.

But Jake is as impressed as an eight year old can be. "What's your name, Robo-guy?"

"I'm Noah Carver."

"Noah Carver and Fred Carver the Robot can both come to my game tomorrow. Maybe I'll make a goal."

"I think you will."

Jake knows that Noah was speaking the truth, and the beginning of their friendship is bending upward and taking every turn from that moment, like the curves of his goals.

~X~

Sixteen year old Jake tells an agent after a game with a grin that, "Fred Carver the Robot helped me."

He never sees that agent again, but it didn't matter when he sees Noah showing up at every game.


	6. A Canon

**Characters: **Prompt from GoldDragonNinja: Gia and Emma get into a fight and fight in the water and mud.  
**Warning/Spoiler: **Gia and Emma are temporarily not friends.  
**Genre: **Friendship/Angst  
**Characters:** Gia/Emma

* * *

Three minutes and fourteen seconds pass until Gia finally says it.

"I told you so."

Emma scoffs and her hands hit the bucket of water with a large plop that gets some flicked on the yellow ranger's leather jacket. The air around them is flooded with the fresh scent of trees and the area is forested and lonely and both of them won't admit that they're thinking the same thing.

"What?" Emma says, turning to her as Gia is filling up her own bucket. "What exactly did you tell me?"

"Attacking his space because he made a stupid comment on flowers ring a bell?" Gia flicks crumbs of dirt towards Emma. "That's why we're here in the middle of the woods working for detention."

"You expect me to stand by?" Emma defends as she takes a flower out of its pot.

"I expect you to be normal about it."

"Gia, I'm not normal. And you wouldn't be here either if you didn't attack him back!"

Under her hair, Gia grits her teeth at the memory of jumping on a teacher's back because he was pissing off her best friend, and no one dares to make that move.

"What, you expect me to stand by?" She imitates Emma in a chirpy voice, which ends in Emma throwing leftover soil from the pot directly at her chest. Gia sticks her plant back on the table and sends a death glare with a sweet little stamp.

"Shut up, Gia." Emma says as she walks over to put a plant in its respective hole. Gia stares at her plain, dry back for a second.

"Do you have to be such a girl about it?" Gia is filling a smaller bucket of water, and Emma suddenly shrieks at her back dampening and gluing her shirt to her. Her denim jacket omits and mirrors all her frozen emotions. She clenches her teeth and her fist and her brain as she snaps back to her with a handful of dirt.

"Do you?" And Emma begins the nature war between mother and sister nature by launching a cup of dirt at her best friend's face.

Suddenly, Gia's wasting her water and throwing it all over Emma while Emma's a canon and balling dirt towards her. Gia creates a mud puddle and Emma creates Gia's irritation. Neither of them know why they're actually fighting, but no one suggests to think anymore and everyone wants to be the better person and win.

"Eat mud." Gia says bluntly and shoots a ball of mud at her best friend's jacket. Emma shrieks as her favorite piece gets ruined and Gia beams victoriously.

Emma's dressed up with sogginess and chunks of dirt when she makes a lunge for Gia, and the yellow ranger dodges it and steps on Emma's boot latch. Emma takes a full on plunge into the mud puddle Gia made for her, and Gia's sure she won because it looks like Emma's hair is everywhere and she looks better.

But Emma's tired of being second sometimes and she's not afraid to grab a fist of mud and hit Gia's chest with lops.

From impact, Gia suddenly falls as Emma sits up with a content smile. Because Gia's groaning and sliding mud out of her once-perfect hair and her yellow shirt's not so yellow. Emma looks and feels brighter in the moment until Gia catapults her own collection as well and they become messier for seven seconds as the gooey brown substance slips through their fingers and down their jackets. Eleven seconds and they finally rest.

The world holds still and gets silent. Sitting in mud, the two of them want to sit and enjoy the birds tweeting and the wind humming for them and the trees waving from every angle.

It's Gia who says the lingering thought falling from the trees.

"What were we fighting about?"

Emma shrugs her shoulders, but soon she's falling backwards into the mud and so is Gia. Gia's dirt blanketed arms are wrapped around her and in the duration of their embrace they decide to ditch after they put in a few plants.


	7. Pepsi and Eight Envelopes

**Summary:** The Megaforce Team sends the ten legend rangers a gift.  
**Warning/Spoiler:** Post-Super Megaforce and Post-Legend War  
**Genre:** Family/Friendship  
**Characters:** Super Megaforce team, Tommy, _Tommy/Kat,_ Cassie/TJ, Leo, _Leo/Kendrix_, Damon, _Damon/Maya_, Karone, Dana/Carter, Wes, Wes/Jen, Mike/Emily, _Conner/Kira, Troy/Emma, Jake/Gia_

_Note: A rather "Super" chapter if I may say so myself ;)._

* * *

Troy, Noah, Gia, Emma, Jake, and Orion are counting down the two weeks to graduation (Orion too, because he's full of surprises) and complete one more requirement before they leave off. They're sitting in Noah's house around his dining table with pepsi and eight envelopes. They're doing eighteen year old arts and crafts, making sure the names are all written neatly and all the pictures go where they should.

Copies of photos are sprawled all over the mahogany and being stuffed into small envelopes and everyone watches Jake to make sure he doesn't crease any of them. But each envelope gets the same set of pictures, and everyone's been assigned an envelope and a job.

Noah sends them out at 4:59 with everyone crowded around the mailbox.

~X~

"Tommy, they're here!"

Tommy drops his pencil as he sees the trio march into his office. Conner and Kira McKnight walk in holding hands and Kira's free hand on her stomach, and Ethan walks beside them, his hand eagerly pressing his laptop. He makes sure to smile at Kat who steps into the study behind them.

"Hey Dr. O! You got this outside." Conner greets and first throws a thickly packed envelope onto his desk before giving him a handshake.

Curiously, he tears it open as Kat comes behind him. He sees familiar faces and dresses and he's grinning.

"What is it?" Kat asks and now Conner, Kira, and Ethan are crumpled around him.

"Prom pictures." Tommy gestures to the stack of pictures, where a nice group photo sits on top of the pile. The ladies dressed in long gowns and the men dressed in tuxes warm their hearts a bit and Tommy is soaring. It seems that everything is falling back into place, and there's not a hint of bruises left on their smiles.

He feels happy knowing that everyone is home where they should be.

~X~

TJ stops for a second when he sees _TJ and Cassie Johnson_ scrawled on the full envelope before bringing it inside.

When Cassie hears her husband read her name, she jumps from the couch and snatches it and leaves him holding a folder of wind. Her hands are teeth that eagerly tear it apart and she ends up spilling a mess of photos in the process. So Cassie looks at her ranger friends on the floor before TJ pokes her and picks them up.

"They look so pretty." Cassie coos and TJ grins humbly, his thumb resting on Noah to signal that blue was the best.

~X~

Leo gets them sent to his workplace and he's at his desk when his assistant brings him a thick envelope that's slightly ripped at the bottom. He takes that rip, makes it bigger, and a thousand pictures fall out.

The first one he catches is of Troy and Emma, the pink ranger engulfed in Troy's arms for a cute little prom picture. He catches the same with Jake and Gia, and Leo finds himself pumping a fist because Jake snagged the girl of his dreams.

He puts one group photo off to the side and reminds himself to frame that later. He can't wait for Kendrix to see them all when he gets home.

~X~

Damon catches Maya looking at his pictures before him, and he's more eager than she would ever be and he wrestles from behind to see the pictures. He earns a smack on the back for making her back ache when he finally wins over the photos.

"I told you they have their green and yellow ranger together!" he says to Maya, who rolls her eyes and Damon knows her and her back are probably annoyed. But he's relieved that looking at Gia _finally_ gave into Jake and he notices the bright yellow rose sticking out of her purse.

"I'll take that." Maya gets back her turn after Damon returns to the front of the stack. But he's already dialing his phone to tell Leo about Gia and Jake. Later that night, they make a plan to call up Jake and tease him about it too.

~X~

Karone knows that it's Orion who can get a package sent over to KO-35 because, well Orion's Orion and like her from his head to his toes. The silver ranger also knows she's visiting, and she plans to creep him out as well.

And while Andros and Zhane goof off in the background, she quietly stares at the group of pictures with happy eyes. She likes seeing all the fancy clothes. She likes seeing everyone connected and always conjoined in every picture. She likes seeing everyone smile with their teeth, not their lips. She likes seeing everyone happy.

Warmth surges itself through her body and seems to make the pictures glow a little brighter.

~X~

Dana pins up a picture on the walls of her examination room while Carter sits behind her looking through the rest and occasionally glances up at her and her blonde hair.

Dana already knew how much she loved being in Harwood with everyone and fighting with every ranger she's never even heard of and hugging Emma and poking Wes and Damon and Leo and laughing with Karone. She misses all those team ups because she doesn't see so many rangers too often.

"You win." she hears Carter sigh and she turns around to see him pointing to a certain pink and red ranger in the middle of a group photo.

Carter stares at his wife's twinkling eyes that miss him and aim straight for the photo. He's pointing to Troy too, and wants to have a long debate with TJ between their colors. But TJ might win because he has _two._ And Carter feels like a teen, because he _wants_ to debate with TJ and he missed everyone he saw and he gave way too many hugs when they all met up again.

"Of course I do." She's smiling smugly because she's blessed and lucky and she's expecting a good fortune when they go out for Chinese tonight.

~X~

Wes hears Eric complaining with disinterest as he holds up the pictures for him to see. But Taylor's here too, and so is Cole and Alyssa, who tugged in Max and Danny and Wes was hoping for that. Because ever since the legend war, he's wanted more and more reunions at his doorstep.

Jen is coming around the threshold and leans over his shoulder to stare with him. And Wes thinks about how much he still likes it when it's just him and Jen too, in colorful swirls of red and pink. Like Troy and Emma, who Jen grabs and coos at. Every legend ranger should know that it's more about who's snogging who.

"They look happy." Jen comments and she beams back at her husband.

"I love you."

"I know." Jen grins bigger and Wes loves the sound of home. "I love you back."

Wes stares at his fresh stack of photos. "And Troy owes me a frame."

~X~

Mike is wondering why they couldn't just walk over to Panorama City and give it to them, but he's interested when a stack of photos get thrown at him by his girlfriend. And Emily is looking over his shoulder in the empty dance studio with her honey sweet smile and Mike almost doesn't look at the photos.

"They could've walked." Mike says out loud.

"You mean driven." Emily corrects, and Mike just shrugs his shoulders because in hinds sight Emily ends up always being right, the little lucky charm.

"Yeah, sure. Or email." Mike is hitting the photos with the back of his hand.

"Some people do it more ways than one. You learned that."

He looks back at the photos and how he had been in the best fight of his life.

~X~

It's a day later when they receive a call from Tommy Oliver, a little blue ranger figurine for Noah and a red one for Troy, thank you cards from their families about how nice they look, and phone calls for Jake and Troy for getting their girls. And Orion finds his missing chain in a package Karone sends him from KO-35.


	8. Universal Wall

**Summary: **Gia has a wall too. It's different and she's different, but she has one.  
**Warning/Spoiler: **Short but Gia heavy, possibly can induce deep thinking  
**Genre: **Angst, Hurt/Comfort  
**Characters: **Gia

_Note: Inspired by chapter 2, _The Comfort Society, _and the brief story I wrote for Gia. This kind of goes into her mind and what she thinks._

_I am late and very sorry!_

* * *

Gia's number is always one. Either Gia's always number one, or Gia finishes in one minute, or a million rations that she hears outside. Inside, one means her. She is one layer.

There is a universal wall that will separate you from the world itself, that makes you a person and makes you individual. It is one of the many things that every being in the world will have. It is invisible, fragile, and flexible. It is also capable of being reached through. Breaking this wall can mean that you are ready for someone else to define you. You are preparing yourself to be like someone else. It can also mean that you have the ability to let everything and everyone come to you like a sniper and bullets will bounce off. You will not change. That's what she thinks.

Gia knows she can break her wall with a push. It'll be easy, she told herself, like a breath. But she's twirling and jumping inside because she's a procrastinator and she can't break down walls.

She can dodge a sniper, but no sniper will come to her. No one will define her if there's nothing to define.

People believe her to be a golden goddess when she is walking down the halls. Apparently her hair is perfect and leather looks amazing on her and her nose and skin tone and everything is perfect about her.

Gia Moran may be all these things, but all these things are in one layer. They remain silent in one realm, a mere bubble behind that wall. One day, she knows, she'll be fine.

The walls will break, but they will never be broken. And when they do break, she thinks that she will be nothing.


	9. Root Beer Floats

**Summary: **Troy and Noah feel lonely together.  
**Warning/Spoiler:** During Super Megaforce Ep. 6 (hasn't aired)/Duration of Casey Rhodes' appearance  
**Genre:** Friendship/Angst  
**Characters:** Troy, Noah, Troy/Noah, _Casey, Emma, Jake_

* * *

Troy is sitting with his limbs and thoughts sprawled in the booth and there's a root beer float sitting on the table in front of him. It doesn't matter how many people are in the room tonight. He's feeling lonely and his heart seems to be dropping altitudes every second. He feels hollow because he feels unimportant, almost unnecessary.

The only thing filling him up is blue since Noah is sitting across from him with all the same manners. And Noah is taking time to recount all the times he's felt like this. He wants a pen to appear in thin air so he can scratch tally marks onto his napkin.

They don't say anything, but they breathe shallow and the sounds of each sip they take is enough to yell what they're feeling. The red and blue are more alike than they thought they were, and it's times like these when they're thankful they were brought together.

There's a lounge one level above Ernie's Brainfreeze, and it's more of a teen hang out and it's all happy and lively and everything Troy and Noah aren't at the moment. The root beer floats matches their insides and they just look at each other and shake their heads. _It's Casey Rhodes_, they say. _He's better company_…

They know it's true, because Emma blew Troy off and Jake left Noah and the pink and black rangers are with the yellow ranger and currently sitting with Casey Rhodes one level below them. And every two minutes, they get pissed inside.

It's the sense of abandonment that draws Troy and Noah together, loneliness and root beer floats swallowing them whole. They fight gravity, because the natural forces of the earth want to pull them through the ground and through the ceiling and stop Casey from stealing their best friends.

But they're both better than that, and they silently sip their beverage as laughs and memories become echoes for a day.


End file.
